This graph illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures, with the year 2020 statistically tying with 2016 for hottest on record (Source: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies). Similarly, the terms "weather" and "climate" are sometimes confused, though they refer to events with broadly different spatial- and timescales. “Climate change” and “global warming” are often used interchangeably but have distinct meanings. Climate data records provide evidence of climate change key indicators, such as global land and ocean temperature increases rising sea levels ice loss at Earth’s poles and in mountain glaciers frequency and severity changes in extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and precipitation and cloud and vegetation cover changes. Scientists use observations from the ground, air, and space, along with computer models, to monitor and study past, present, and future climate change. Natural processes, which have been overwhelmed by human activities, can also contribute to climate change, including internal variability (e.g., cyclical ocean patterns like El Niño, La Niña and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) and external forcings (e.g., volcanic activity, changes in the Sun’s energy output, variations in Earth’s orbit). These changes have a broad range of observed effects that are synonymous with the term.Ĭhanges observed in Earth’s climate since the mid-20th century are driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, raising Earth’s average surface temperature.
Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates.
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